2007-08-05 - Stanford, United States. O'connell-Rodwell CE, Wood JD, Kinzley C, Rodwell TC, Poole JH, Puria S. Stanford University School of Medicine
In a series of experiments, familiar and unfamiliar alarm calls were transmitted seismically to wild African elephant family groups. Elephants respond significantly to the alarm calls of familiar herds (p=0.004) but not to the unfamiliar calls and two different controls, thus demonstrating the ability of elephants to discriminate subtle differences between seismic calls given in the same context. If elephants use the seismic environment to detect and discriminate between conspecific calls, based...
2007-08-01 - Erzurum, Turkey. Demir Y, Nadaroðlu H, Demir N. Faculty of Education Atatürk University
Four isoenzymes of carbonic anhydrase (CA) were purified from Elephas Irogontherii (steppe elephant) bone (approx 0.3-0.5 million years old) from different locations (outer peripheral, cytosolic, inner peripheral and integral) using Sepharose 4B-L-tyrosine sulphanilamide affinity chromatography and their kinetics properties were investigated and compared with known CA isoenzymes. The purification degree of CAs was monitored by SDS-PAGE. Purification fold for outer peripheral, inner peripheral, c...
2007-07-24 - Leipzig, Germany. Nadin Rohland, Anna-Sapfo Malaspinas,Joshua L. Pollack2, Montgomery Slatkin, Paul Matheus, Michael Hofreiter
We have sequenced the complete mitochondrial genome of the extinct American mastodon (Mammut americanum) from an Alaskan fossil that is between 50,000 and 130,000 y old, extending the age range of genomic analyses by almost a complete glacial cycle. The sequence we obtained is substantially different from previously reported partial mastodon mitochondrial DNA sequences. By comparing those partial sequences to other proboscidean sequences, we conclude that we have obtained the first sequence of m...
2007-06-30 - Corvallis, United States. Bechert U, Christensen JM. Oregon State University
The pharmacokinetic parameters of S(+) and R(-) ibuprofen were determined in 20 elephants after oral administration of preliminary 4-, 5-, and 6-mg/kg doses of racemic ibuprofen. Racemic ibuprofen administered at 6 mg/kg/12 hr for Asian elephants and at 7 mg/kg/12 hr for African elephants results in therapeutic serum concentrations of this antiinflammatory agent.
2007-06-25 - Gifu, Japan. Kusuda S, Wakimoto T, Sato T, Nishimura K, Kawakami S, Okuda K, Saito E, Shimada T, Sakamoto H, Yanagimoto H, Wada S, Nishio K, Fuji H, Suzuki T, Hashikawa H, Kusunoki H, Doi O. Biological Sciences, Gifu University.
The aim of the present study was to investigate whether changes in body temperature are related to the ovarian cycle in elephants. Rectal, tongue or fecal temperature was measured for 2 Asian and 5 African elephants using an electric thermometer. Evaluation of ovarian cycles was based on the changes in serum or fecal progestin. These results suggest that measurement of body temperature can be used to easily evaluate the ovarian cyclicity of an individual animal, although it might not be able to ...
2007-06-19 - Bloemfontein, South Africa. Osthoff G, de Wit M, Hugo A, Kamara BI. University of the Free State
Data are presented that indicate the dynamic changes of nutrients in milk from three free ranging African elephant (Loxodonta africana africana) cows during lactation. Electrophoresis and identification of protein bands showed that polymorphs of one whey protein may be present in elephant's milk similar to polymorphs of alpha-lactalbumin found in cow's milk. During these lactation times the content of short chain fatty acids, capric and caprylic acids increased, while fatty acids lauric acid and...
2007-06-06 - Davis, United States. Hart BL, Hart LA, Pinter-Wollman N. University of California
Among terrestrial mammals, elephants share the unique status, along with humans and great apes, of having large brains, being long-lived and having offspring that require long periods of dependency. Although focused neural cytoarchitecture studies on the elephant are needed, this comparative perspective on the cortical neural cytoarchitecture appears to relate to differences in behavior between elephants and their primate counterparts.
2007-06-01 - Vienna, Austria. AS Stoeger-Horwath, S Stoeger, HM Schwammer, and H Kratochvil
African savannah elephants (Loxodonta africana) have a complex acoustic communication system, but very little is known about their vocal ontogeny. A first approach in ontogenetic studies is to define the call repertoire of specific age groups. Twelve hundred calls of 11 infant elephants from neonatal to 18 months of age recorded at the Vienna Zoo in Austria and at the Daphne Sheldrick's orphanage at the Nairobi National Park, Kenya were analyzed. Six call types were structurally distinguished: t...
2007-05-10 - Johannesburg, South Africa. Kinahan AA, Inge-Moller R, Bateman PW, Kotze A, Scantlebury M. University of the Witwatersrand
The savanna elephant is the largest extant mammal and often inhabits hot and arid environments. Due to their large size, it might be expected that elephants have particular physiological adaptations, such as adjustments to the rhythms of their core body temperature (T(b)) to deal with environmental challenges. This study describes for the first time the T(b) daily rhythms in savanna elephants.
2007-04-15 - Front Royal, United States. Brown JL, Somerville M, Riddle HS, Keele M, Duer CK, Freeman EW., Smithsonian Institution, National Zoological Park
Concentrations of serum testosterone, cortisol, thyroxine (free and total T4), triiodothyronine (free and total T3) and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) were measured to assess adrenal and thyroid function as they relate to testicular activity and musth in captive elephants. Data were generally inconclusive as to a role for thyroid hormones in male reproduction, but the finding of discrete patterns in bulls showing clear testosterone cycles suggests they may facilitate expression or control of ...
No news?.
Sorry, no records matching your query.
